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I understood the difficulties that Siedensticker talked about in this interview. There are many times in translation where you must make difficult decisions, which will affect the outcome of the novel. I think it is was also very interesting how he included the perspective of translating English into Japanese. There have been quite a few instances while translating where the Japanese is either very long, or very short and it somehow has to be rendered in the opposite way to make sense in English.
Questions:
1. He considers translators as counterfeiters, trying to copy the original as much as possible. As a translator, he says, you make choices which are often between two unsatisfactory possibilities. Do you think it is possible to arrive at a perfect translation, and if yes, what would render it so?
2. Siedensticker considers Kawabata's writing style as obscure. He even goes on to mention that he thinks some problems he comes across in translating are the result of bad writing. Do you think in these instances that it is more important to remain faithful to the original text, or make the translation more understandable for the target audience and is this then a good translation or a bad one?
3. He also mentions the addition of the subject of the train in once sentence. There is also the case that Kawabata is a writer of few words, however Siedensticker translates 思う forty-five different ways. So in regards to accommodating the audience, how much should be added and does style play the same role in Japanese literature as it does in English/Western literature?
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